Alternate Universe. At age 16, Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable have never met, until now. Kim has been up to her usual world saving business, but what has Ron been doing? Something that Kim probably won't like.

Authors Note: This
is an alternate universe story, as the description said. Kim and Ron
have never met… until now. I happen to think it will be rather
unique, though that's just me as the author. Hopefully you guys
and girls will enjoy the story.

Disclaimer: I do
not own Kim Possible, and all that good stuff.

XXXXXXXXXX

This was turning
into a real pain.

Once more, 16 year
old teen hero Kim Possible had been called out on a mission. It's
not that she didn't enjoy the missions, quite the opposite in fact. It was so thrilling, so exhilarating to her. She liked to help
people in need. She was all about saving their worlds. On a regular
basis she was out saving the world from freaks and villains bent on
conquering the it. And every time she set out to stop them, barring
some strange and unforeseen phenomenon, she won. She would always
win. She could do anything.

But sometimes, just
sometimes she just wanted to be a normal teenager. After all she was
only a sophomore in high school. Was it too much to ask to just have
a carefree life from time to time? Outside of the pressures of
school that is. Then again there was absolutely nothing normal about
her family in the first place. Especially the tweebs… Imagine if
they eventually got into this. She shuddered at the thought.

Everything had been
great so far that day. It was a cool early March day and she had
been hanging out at her house with her best friend Monique after
school, just as they did just about every day since she moved to
Middleton. On this particular Friday they had been talking about
pretty much everything, boys, fashion, school, music. And that's
when the kimmunicator beeped.

"Hey Wade, what's
the sitch?" Kim asked trying to conceal a sigh.

"Bad time?" The
young boy asked.

"No… not really. I was just chilling with Monique."

"Sorry Kim, you
know I try not to call you unless it's something important."

He was right. She
knew it too. Good old Wade. Sure he may not have left his room
much, or at all, she didn't really know all of the details. She
wasn't even sure if she wanted to know the details. But he was
still a true friend. One of her best friends in fact, despite the
age difference.

If she could do
anything, she didn't even know how to begin to describe Wade. He
was nothing more than a child. Yet he had graduated from high school
and college already. He ran her website, created all kinds of high
tech weapons and tools for her missions, and supposedly was even
working on some sort of high tech battle suit for her. It was still
in it's early stages and would not be fully developed for about
another year. She had decided not to press him for details.

"So what's going
on?"

"A rumor's going
around that there's going to be a break in at a-"

"Top secret lab?" She asked with a slight grin.

"Can't get
anything past you." He replied with a similar satisfactory smile.

"Do you know
what's being targeted?"

"Preliminary
reports are that there is some sort of top secret computer program
being worked on there. That would be your best bet."

"Where and when?"

"The good news is,
it's just outside of Denver so it won't take long at all to get
there. The bad news is, it's all going down in about a half hour."

Not exactly what she
had wanted to hear. "So I take it my ride will be here shortly?"

"Like I said
before, no fooling you Kim."

"Alright, I'll
be ready in five." She said shutting off the screen of her
kimmunicator.

She gave a look in
Monique's direction who had overheard the entire conversation. She
was already preparing to leave knowing exactly what the sitch was. It was nothing new, it came with the territory of being close to Kim
Possible.

"Sorry Monique…
looks like another day is being cut short because of my
missions."

"It's cool Kim. I know that you do what you
need to do." She replied with a look of understanding in her eyes. "Though sometimes I just wish you would consider letting me help
you out on a mission from time to time. It might be easier to have a
partner."

"You know I
couldn't let you do that. It's too dangerous for someone who's
untrained. Heck, it's even dangerous for me, and I've been
studying martial arts for years now."

"Yeah, I guess
you're right. Just try to stay safe, okay?"

"So not the drama
Monique. With any luck It'll be done in a couple hours and we can
go out for smoothies when I get back."

"You're on."

XXXXXXXXXX

A local news
helicopter had come minutes later to pick up a waiting Kim. Clad in
her green cargo pants and black crop top she was prepared to go out
and do what she does best, beat the bad guys. Climbing aboard and
strapping herself in, the pilot took off and said that they would be
reaching their destination in about thirty minutes. Kim silently
hoped that she would get there in time. If she was dealing with a
pro, a few minutes off might make all the difference. Not that she
was used to dealing with pros on even a semi regular basis.

"Thanks for the
lift Dan."

"Are you kidding? It was the least I could do
after you helped sort out that monster traffic jam a few weeks ago." He replied sincerely.

"No big, anyone
could have helped move that couch out of the middle of the highway." She said nonchalantly. "The only thing which surprised me was
that the authorities were just standing by it not knowing what to
do."

It was the same as
usual. Strike up a casual, usually empty conversation with the
person giving her a ride. Sure, she liked being appreciated. She
liked it when people thanked her for her good deeds. But that really
wasn't why she did what she did. Sadly the conversations usually
only lasted for about five minutes. The rest of the time was spent
in silence. This left Kim with time to think about many things. What if this was the mission where she really got hurt, or worse? There had been a few close calls in her career as a crime fighting
teenager, mostly at the hands of her green skinned foe Shego. But
every time Kim had come out the victor. There was no reason to doubt
herself now. She knew this, but that still didn't stop her from
wondering. As someone had once said, sometimes your mind is your
real worst enemy.

She rested her head
against the window of the chopper and gazed out at the surrounding
terrain. So placid, so beautiful. The sun was still up, it was only
around 5:30. Her plan was to be home by around 7:30, call Monique,
and pick up where they had left off. She was definitely thinking
about putting a bit of extra hurt on whoever was out there tonight,
ruining her peaceful afternoon. Maybe that would teach them to go
taking things that didn't belong to them.

The lab complex was
fairly isolated from the rest of the surrounding area. It must have
been for secrecy and security reasons, Kim mused to herself. She
then laughed at that thought. Looks like that wasn't going to help
tonight. Whoever had broken in was obviously aware of its presence. So the owners of the complex had gone to all of this work for
nothing. Despite their best efforts, someone had found something
valuable inside. Someone had discovered a way to get it. And now it
was up to her to go out of her way to stop that someone. To her that
was totally lame. Which wasn't at all surprising. Which was also
totally, totally lame.

Kim quickly and
quietly descended the rope she had tied to the landing skid of the
helicopter. Her boots impacted on the ground below with a thud
sending a small plume of dirt into the air. She rose up to her full
height and shook her long red hair out of her face. Scanning the
area she saw the door which led inside the main lab building. Approaching it she noticed that the door's lock and handle had
somehow been taken off cleanly. It would have taken some very small
hands, and small tools to pull off such a feat. But right now such
trivial things did not concern her. She was in mission mode now. Her head was in the game. She had a single minded purpose to
accomplish what she came to do. She would do it with the skill and
grace that embodied the young woman she was. She was Kim Possible. She would not fail.

XXXXXXXXXX

Kneeling beside a
large steel safe, he was continuing his work. Another night, another
paycheck. That was all this was to him. After all the times he had
gone out and done his missions, it had all become so routine. Go in,
get what he came for, get out. And never once had he come close to
being caught. He suddenly realized he had began humming a happy tune
while he was working. Was it really this easy, really this fun to
make the kind of money that he was?

It was funny how
life worked sometimes. For much of his existence he had been a
slacker, an underachiever. He battled with low self esteem, and was
a textbook class clown. It was almost like he was missing some
critical motivating factor in his life. Then one day back in seventh
grade he had received a wakeup call. He had been failing in his math
class. In a completely unexpected move, his math teacher began
screaming at him after class. He went on and on about unused
potential and how if he applied himself he could go far in life. The
rather one-sided conversation had not fallen upon deaf ears.

Since that day he
had worked hard to get his life back on track. He wasn't a
straight A student, and probably never would be. But at least he had
tried his best and his teachers took notice. He received praise from
them like he had never expected to. For the first time in his life
people started to believe in him. It made him feel good. His
confidence grew until he eventually built up the courage to take that
karate class he had been eyeing ever since he was a small child. He
was surprisingly adept in the field of martial arts.

Since then he had
developed his talents, and eventually found a strange line of work
with a most unexpected character. It was completely accidental like
many good things in life. What was that called again? Serendipity? This was a good thing, wasn't it? Of course it was. Good quick
money without doing a lot of work. That was part of the American
dream right? Thoughts of his past and how he had gotten to this
point in his life often swirled in his head when he was on a mission.

The terrible image
of the man garbed in bird feathers shot into his mind.

He shook his head
trying to force the memory from his mind. He tried to cut off
memories of his mistake right then and there, and get back to
focusing on the task at hand. There would be other times to
reminisce about how he had come to work for villains. That was when
he heard a voice behind him.

"Step away from
the safe. Now." The female voice said sternly.

A cold chill went
down the mans spine. What was this? Someone knew he was here? But
how?

"Oh… I seem to
have forgotten the combination to my safe." He said, not even
looking up from his work.

Kim stared at the
man kneeling beside the safe. This was not at all what she had been
expecting. She had thought it would be one of her regulars. Drakken, Dementor, Killigan. Not this stranger. Whoever he was, he
dressed surprisingly like her. The only difference was that his
midsection wasn't exposed, and his pants were black. On his
shoulders rested a black backpack. In his hands was a small blow
torch, busily cutting through the steel shell of the safe. His face
was hidden from her though for two reasons. His back was turned to
her, and covering his face was a bulky welding mask. The only
noticeable features she could detect on the man were his blonde hair
and seemingly large ears.

"Then it looks
like I'm going to have to bring you in the hard way." She said
dropping into a fighting stance.

"Why should we
fight?" Ron asked innocently, again not looking up from what he
was doing. "It accomplishes so little."

"Because…" She said, seemingly taken aback by his attitude. "It's part of
the game. We meet, talk a little, fight, you lose, I go home. Were
you expecting something else?"

"I would really
rather not fight, I have a busy few days ahead of me. There's
another job I have to do tomorrow, and on Monday I'm starting at a
new school. I just got transferred there a few days ago when I
moved."

Kim by now was
beyond frustrated. Frustrated and admittedly very confused. No
other villain she had even encountered had just brushed her off so
easily. Normally they would have henchmen with them to fight her
off. Normally they would go on some inane rant about their plot for
world domination making it all the easier for her to stop them. But
this man, no, not a man. He mentioned he was going to a new school? He was only a boy, probably no older than she was. This… Boy…
Had not once even bothered to look at her while she was speaking. Even when she threatened him he was not distracted.

"This, this just
isn't how things are done on a mission!" She said, clearly
flustered.

"Ha ha… you
remind me of Hego-" He chuckled.

"What?" She
interrupted.

How did this boy
know Hego? Even Kim had only met Hego once, and that was just to
stop some freak named Aviarius from stealing the world's largest
flamingo in the Go City zoo. He apparently was going to train it to
become a guardian for his lair.

"Well you see,
this one time a guy named Aviarius hired me to break into the Go
Tower for some sort of recon mission. The only problem was I didn't
have the power to open the doors. So I had to find someone from Team
Go to get me in. Oh by the way, I didn't catch your name."

"It's Kim. Kim
Possible." She said with a hint of pride in her voice.

Ron stopped for a
brief moment and swallowed hard. This was not good at all. But the
one thing that he didn't want to do was let her know that he was
slightly afraid. The prospect of having to get through Kim Possible
was a difficult one at that. He could not seem shaken by this fact. He had to maintain the false front of confidence that he put up in
front of people. It was his own little form of protection against
the cruelty of the world. Especially against most of the people he
had grown up with who taunted him for being weird and called him a
loser.

Kim thought that
maybe if this common criminal knew who she was he would surrender
easily. Maybe she wouldn't have to do any fighting today. After
all it wasn't as if this guy was a super villain or anything. There was no way he could stand a chance in defeating her.

"Wow, really? I
never thought I would meet you in the flesh." Ron began, working
overtime to keep his voice steady. "Well Ms. Possible as I was
saying, I had to find a way in. So I found a disguise and waited
outside of the Go Tower for one of them to get home. So when the
purple guy got home, I appeared to just be a churro vendor. I asked
if he wanted one, and of course he agreed to let me in while he got
his money. And after all, who could resist a churro?"

"Anyway," He
continued. "Soon Hego came in and saw what was going on. I was
sitting in his chair or something, and taking pictures of the inside
of the lair. We engaged in a little verbal sparage and he got really
tweaked, sort of like you are right now. Finally he started
screaming 'This just isn't how things are done in the Go Tower!'. But by then I was already on my way out the door, so it didn't
matter anymore. The purple one never did get that churro. They were
both pretty incompetent."

Kim had just been
fuming a few seconds ago at this boys remark at how 'tweaked' she
was. It wasn't a lie, not by a long shot. It was quite another
thing to have some strange criminal bring it up like that as if he
was trying to get under her skin. But now her own memories of her
experience with Hego had been recalled and she realized just how
right the boy was. She couldn't help but giggle a little just
thinking about what it must have been like for Hego to walk in on
what was described to her.

"Yeah." She
laughed. "Hego is so like that. No wonder Shego ended up leaving
Team Go."

"Wait, Shego used
to be a super hero? No way! Wow if this got out it would totally
ruin her reputation." He said surprised. "I'll
have to remember this bit of information." He then thought to himself.

"Yeah, I found
that out when I was working with Team Go a few months ago. I think
that I would have left if I were in her shoes too. Brothers can be
so annoying. Trust me, I know."

"I don't." He
said sadly. "Only child right here."

"Don't worry,
you're not missing out on much."

A brief period of
silence enveloped the room as she stood uneasily, just watching him.

"So now you know
who I am. What's your name?" She asked at last.

"Ron."

"Does Ron have a
last name?"

"In my line of
work it's wise to stay out of the spotlight, and for people to not
know much about you. But you seem pretty harmless."

"Oh." Was all
she could manage.

Kim just realized
that for some odd reason she had actually been enjoying this
conversation. Why is that? This was a mission after all. Was it
because she was just talking about little bits of nothing with
another person her age? She had not even made one real attempt to
stop him from his work. And all the while he had been working on
getting into the safe that she was supposed to be protecting. A cold
realization came over her, he was just playing her. He was buying
time so that he could get what he had came for. It had worked
perfectly, until now. And did he just tell her that he thought she
was harmless?

By now though the
job was done. Ron had turned off his blow torch and stuck his hand
inside the large hole in the safe. He carefully took out whatever
the item was and put it safely into one of his pockets. He didn't
really bother looking at it, but it felt like a disk. He decided
that he really didn't care either. It wasn't his place to care
about what it was he was stealing. It was all just part of the job
to him.

Standing up and
removing his mask he looked at Kim for the first time. What he saw
amazed him. She was a stunning sight. Fiery red hair, emerald green
eyes. He knew these were clichéd terms that probably everyone used
to describe her. But he just couldn't help using them. It just
seemed so natural to do so.

"So, you're the
famous Kim Possible?" He asked at last.

"Yeah, and I've
had enough of your little games. Hand over the disk right now." She said looking at him with a determined look in her eyes.

Now that she saw his
face, she realized that he was just indeed a teenager. A face
spotted with freckles, deep brown eyes, and the blonde hair she had
seen before. He was even smiling at her, an almost goofy grin. Whether that was a natural look or just one to try and goad her on,
she didn't know.

"You know I
imagined you would be a bit taller for someone who goes around the
world kicking bad guy butt every week."

The comment about
her height sent Kim over the edge. "No
one mocks my height!" She thought furiously as she charged the boy.

Ron knew he had to
act fast in order to avoid the fist that was inbound on his face. He
was a more than competent fighter but he did not want to get involved
with anything tonight. Not with someone with a reputation like Kim
Possible. He didn't know if even he could take her on and come out
victorious. The only thing he could think to do was escape.

Just milliseconds
before the blow was about to land Ron ducked and rolled out under
Kim's swinging arm. Her momentum carried her a few feet past where
he had been standing. Immediately after evading the punch, he was on
his feet and dashed towards the door. Running down the hallway he
knew Kim was in hot pursuit. It was a good thing he had his backpack
tonight. More specifically what was concealed within it. He felt
through the fabric of it for a button as he ran through the doors to
freedom. Two small wings tore through the sides of his pack, and
soon all of the material began to fall off. What was left was a
smooth silver jetpack, a gift from his employer just incase he needed
a quick escape route. It had turned out to be exactly what he
required.

"Okay maybe
Drakken isn't so stupid." He thought. "I'll
need to thank him for the jetpack."

Igniting the pack he
took off into the late afternoon sky leaving a very angry Kim
Possible standing on the ground gazing up at him. If looks could
kill, Ron would have been a dead man.

XXXXXXXXXX

"I don't get it. He escaped?" Monique asked, astonished.

A low growl was all
that escaped Kim's throat.

"But how? No one
ever beats you. It's impossible for a Possible to lose."

Kim uttered another
feral growl as she took a sip from her smoothie. She was mad for a
number of reasons. She let the bad guy play her. She let him steal
whatever was on that disk. And then, he had managed to dodge her
attack and successfully escape. It was something nearly unheard of
for her. She was always so professional about her work. Nothing
like that pompous ass Will Du though. Now that she thought about it,
he would probably have a field day with her once he found out about
her failure. He would be back to calling her an 'amateur' in no
time.

"I don't get
it." Kim said at last. "I just stood there talking to him for
most of the time. I only threw a single punch, which missed."

"Sounds like this
boy really threw you off your game today."

"It's like he
didn't even care about who I was. He didn't care that I was
there to stop him. He was completely oblivious to my intentions." Kim mused bitterly.

"Don't worry
Kim. Even a hero has a bad day. But it sounds to me like you have
yourself a brand new foe to worry about."

"He did mention
that he had another job to do tomorrow though."

"Thinking
about getting some payback?" Monique asked with a sly grin on his
face.

"Not a trace of
doubt in my mind." She said as she whipped out her kimmunicator.

"Just don't
forget about your date with Josh tomorrow."

Kim paused for a
moment. Josh Mankey. Her mood had suddenly changed to one of
nervousness. The boy that she had been crushing on for months now
had finally asked her out. She didn't know what she was going to
do, what she was going to wear. She hoped that she wouldn't mess
this up. But she would worry about that more tomorrow.

Pressing a button
the screen lit up and the image of Wade sitting in his room appeared.

"What's up Kim?"

She had talked with
Wade on the way back. He had been unable to get a GPS lock on Ron as
he sped away. But she went into detail about what he had told her
about his employment, and how apparently doing this was nothing new
to him.

"I want you to be
on the lookout for this guy again. Extra scans, extra intelligence
gathering. I want this guy found. He said he's planning on doing
this again tomorrow, so I need you to find him before he can."

"Well Kim, it's
not like I have a tracking chip embedded in the guy."

"I know Wade. It's just that this is really irritating me."

"It will
be difficult, but I'll do my best. I'll keep you updated on
anything I find."

"Thanks Wade, you
rock."

XXXXXXXXXX

Middleton. His new
home. Or his old home, depending on how you wanted to look at it.

Ron eased down on
his bed. It was a few minutes past midnight. He was exhausted. His
mission had taken most of the day. Go to Denver, almost get caught
by Kim Possible, and then fly to Drakken's Rocky Mountain lair to
deliver the parcel. All in all it had been a success. Drakken had
paid him well. Now he just had to do was wait for the check to clear
and he would have tons of cash once more. It was a shame he had to
buy most of his own equipment from Hench Co. It was only on very
rare occasions that one of his employers provided him with
accessories for his missions. Luckily today had been one of those
occasions. Without the jetpack Drakken had given him, he would have
been royally screwed. And he knew it.

Something had to
have gone wrong. How had someone known he was there? It couldn't
be a coincidence that the
Kim Possible had shown up to thwart him. Someone had to have made a
mistake. He wasn't sure, but it was most likely Drakken who had
made it possible. That was so fitting. Making it possible for
Possible. Amazing how Drakken could screw up his own plan even when
he wasn't on the scene of the crime. Oh well.

Tomorrow would be
another day. Another mission. Another crime. Ron didn't really
consider it a crime though. It was all just business. It's not as
if anyone had ever gotten hurt because of what he did. He reassured
himself that they never would either. People had told him to use his
potential. He was using it alright. He thought it would be funny if
those who had told him to apply himself could see him now. Besides
those he toiled for, only two souls knew what he did when he was
supposedly "at work".

Ron looked forward
to Monday. He would be starting fresh in his teenage social life. Maybe this time things could be different. A new beginning, at
Middleton High School.

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